Register your deed & secure your property

Registration of all sorts of deed relating to transfer of immoveable property is mandatory after 1 July 2005 by amending the hundred years old Registration Act of the country. Hence, in the eye of law, an unregistered deed/document has no legal effect and no one can claim any right on the basis of it. Moreover, no court of law will admit this kind of instrument as an evidence. Consequently, an unregistered document may create complexity and one may lose his/her rights over his/her property only for the lack of registration. By taking the scope of this deficiency a transferor may transfer his/her property again and again which ultimately lead to multiplicity of suits. 

In our country most of the civil suits are arising out of this unconsciousness of the transferees. For this reason, registration of a deed is compulsory to avoid further complexity as well as to protect the property. So, all sale deed, gift deed, mortgage deed, partition deed, contract for sale deed, exchange deed, lease deed are need to be duly registered in the office of the Sub-registrar under the jurisdiction of which the property is located. Apart from this, registration of immoveable property is necessary to secure proprietary rights but not always obligatory.

Procedure for getting registration: Aside from sale deed of land, registration of contract for sale deed (Bainanama) is also mandatory now. A contract for sale deed must be registered within thirty days from the date of its execution. After completion of all requirements to register and fulfilling the conditions of contract for sale deed, the main sale deed has to be registered within three months from the date of execution. There is no scope to register after lapse of this stipulated time. However, a defaulter may appeal to the district registrar for registration after showing proper cause of delay.

Maintaining all legal formalities properly is the first pre requisite to register an instrument. Before presenting the documents to register, one has to scrutiny all necessary papers relating to the property cautiously and identifies the title, ownership, possession etc. over the property of the transferor. Now, it is essential to submit an affidavit by the transferor in this regard. Then draft the deed properly. It is very important for both the transferor and the transferee to set up their rights and liabilities in the deed appropriately. Usually some professionals draft the deed and the transferee depends on this as much that he/she does not even feel to read/check it. The language of the deed will be determined by the parties and understandable by the registrar. 

However, in fact the contents of the deed will determine the rights and liabilities of the parties. Hence, it is crucial to write up the rights and duties of the parties clearly, legibly & specifically. Without doing this, one may refuse to perform his/her duty by thanking the opportunity of this ambiguity and illiteracy. In addition, it is very important to write legibly and using simple words to construe the document easily, because sometime it makes confusion to determine the liability. However, our law (the Specific Relief Act) permits to correct/amend or even cancel the deed after the execution and registration of a defective deed through the court. But the process is complex, time consuming and expensive. Hence, it is better to take caution before doing error. 

Now, to transfer an immoveable property the parties will have to affix there attested photos on the deed and appear physically before the registry office. Moreover, in case of sale, the transferor will provide detail information and history about the chain of ownership since last 25 years. Further, he/she will explain the way by which he/she acquires the right to transfer and submit all original papers, records, khatiyans etc. relating to the property.  In addition, the seller will provide information regarding nature of the property, price, location map, description of surrounding properties, hand sketch map of the property, schedule of the land etc. in the sale deed. If the property is situated more than one Sub-registrar’s jurisdiction then the registration may be done in any of the place or the place at which larger portion of the land is situated. 

A receipt will be given at the time of registration which will be shown at the time of collection of registered deed. Hence, preserve your receipt carefully. Everyone should take a copy of registered deed after completion of the whole process and examine the papers thoroughly. In case of any discrepancy, inform the Sub-registrar and pray for correction. 

If the parties are unable to present physically before the Sub-registrar’s office then the officer will come to the convenient place to register the document. It is necessary to remember that a deed is being effective from the date of execution and not from the date of registration. If anybody executes a deed in foreign state then the deed will must be registered within four months after reaching in Bangladesh. The language of the deed may be translated for the convenience of the parties and the registrar also.

Sometimes parties are showing less value than the original in the deed to avoid fees and taxes which may create obstacle to get proper legal protection. Do not take aid from any unauthorized person to register your property. In reality, there are a lot of middlemen or touts who instigate you to appoint them for money to do your registration swiftly and promptly. It may affect adversely and it is also prohibited under the Registration Act, 1908.

Introduction of a digital system can bring changes to the registration administration. Hence digitalization of the whole system is obvious as well as demand of time. It can make the system easy and reduce complexity. Moreover, it will be effective to prevent forgery. The government can introduce prescribed form for illiterate peasants who want to transfer their assets. In addition, a well structured database of owner can diminish sufferings of the citizens of our motherland and can bring transparency in this sector. Hence, it is our utmost appeal to the policymakers to think about it and take necessary steps regarding this immediately.

Registration fees: The registration fee for contract for sale deed may vary depends upon the value of the property. The fee is tk 500, if the value of the immoveable property is less than tk 500000. It is tk 1000, if the value is between tk 500000-5000000 and it is tk 2000, if the value of the property is more than tk 5000000.

In case of a mortgage deed it depends upon the mortgage amount. If the amount is less than tk 500000, then the amount of fee is 1% of total mortgage money but the amount must not be less than tk 200 and not more than tk 500. If the amount is between tk 500000-2000000, then the fee is 0.25% of total amount, but not less than tk 1500 and not more than tk 2000. If the amount exceeds tk 2000000 then the fee will be 0.10% of total amount which will be not less than tk 3000 and not more than tk 5000.

If it is a gift/heba (heba is for the Muslims only) deed and executed between husband-wife, parents-children, grandfather-grandmother, brother-sister, grandfather/grandmother-grandson/granddaughter then the fee is tk 100 only and for rest of the cases the fee is same as sale deed.

In case of partition deed the fee is tk 500, if the market price of the property is within tk 300000, if the value is between tk 300000-1000000, then the fee is tk 700. If the value is between tk 1000000-3000000, then the fee is tk 1200 and if the value is between tk 3000000-5000000, then the fee is tk 1800. However, in this case the highest amount of fee is tk 2000 when the market price of the property exceeds tk 5000000.

Published in the Dhaka Tribune at Juris page (page-7) on 15.05.2014.